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Table of Contents

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PREFACE FOR INSTRUCTORS

vii

THEMATIC CONTENTS

xxix

INTRODUCTION

1

(6)

WHY READ? WHY WRITE? WHY NOT PHONE?

1

(1)

USING THE BEDFORD READER

2

(71)

The Selections

The Organization

The Journal Prompts, Questions, Writing Topics, and Glossary

Writers on Writing

PART ONE READING, WRITING, AND RESEARCH

7

(66)

1 READING CRITICALLY

9

(22)

READING AN ESSAY

10

(3)

The Preliminaries

The First Reading

NANCY MAIRS

Disability

13

(1)

A writer with multiple sclerosis thinks she knows why the media carry so few images of disabled people like herself: Viewers might conclude, correctly, that "there is something ordinary about disability itself."

Writing While Reading

Summarizing

Thinking Critically

Analyzing "Disability"

THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT VISUAL IMAGES

26

(5)

The Big Picture

Analysis

Visual Image: Trust, advertisement for St. Paul insurance

Inference

Synthesis

Evaluation

2 WRITING EFFECTIVELY

31

(18)

THE WRITING SITUATION

31

(3)

Subject

Audience and Purpose

THE WRITING PROCESS

34

(6)

Discovery Drafting

The Thesis and the Thesis Statement

Revision Collaboration

AN ESSAY-IN-PROGRESS

40

(6)

Reading and Drafting

Revising Editing

Final Draft

DOUG ROBERTS

Disability in the Media

46

(1)

Responding to Nancy Mairs's "Disability," a student cites three current television programs to show positive changes in how the media portray people with disabilities.

3 USING AND DOCUMENTING SOURCES

49

(26)

CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT SOURCES

49

(3)

Relevance and Reliability

Online Sources

INTEGRATING SOURCE MATERIAL

52

(3)

Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation

Introduction of Source Material

PLAGIARISM

55

(1)

Plagiarism and the Internet

Common Knowledge

SOURCE CITATION USING MLA STYLE

56

(12)

MLA Parenthetical Citations

MLA List of Works Cited

SAMPLE RESEARCH PAPER

68

(1)

MARIE JAVDANI

Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead

68

(1)

Integrating information from varied sources, a student takes a global view of the US war on drugs.

In the time it takes for a strong arm to fall, a student discovers that becoming an adult has changed the way he feels about his father and their physical competition.

Brad Manning on Writing

150

(2)

SARAH VOWELL

Shooting Dad

152

(1)

"All he ever cared about were guns. All I ever cared about was art." Despite their essential difference, the writer discovers a strong resemblance between her father and herself.

Sarah Vowell on Writing

160

(2)

JUDITH ORTIZ COFER

Silent Dancing

162

(1)

Punctuated with descriptions of home movies and bits of dreams, this well-known essay re-creates the writer's childhood in an immigrant family.

Judith Ortiz Cofer on Writing

171

(2)

ETHAN CANIN

Fly-Fishing for Doctors

173

(1)

During an operation, an ant peers around a surgeon's mask and thrills a medical student yearning for the outdoors.

Ethan Canin on Writing

177

(1)

JOYCE CAROL OATES

Edward Hopper Nighthawks, 1942

178

(1)

This poem animates the people in Edward Hopper's famous painting Nighthawks, imagining from what can be seen what might be occurring.

Visual Image: Nighthawks, painting by Edward Hopper

Joyce Carol Oates on Writing

183

(2)

ADDITIONAL WRITING TOPICS

185

(2)

6 EXAMPLE: Pointing to Instances

187

(42)

Visual Image: Cellular Phones of the Future, cartoon by Barry Blitt

THE METHOD

188

(1)

THE PROCESS

189

(3)

Focus on Sentence Variety

191

(1)

Checklist for Revising an Example Essay

191

(1)

EXAMPLES IN PARAGRAPHS

192

(1)

EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE: Writing a cover letter for a job application

193

(2)

PAIRED SELECTIONS: HOMELESSNESS

BARBARA LAZEAR ASCHER

On Compassion

195

(1)

Where do we find the compassion to help the desperate, the homeless? It's "not a character trait like a sunny disposition," says this essayist. "It must be learned, and it is learned by having adversity at our windows."

Barbara Lazear Ascher on Writing

199

(1)

ANNA QUINDLEN

Homeless

200

(1)

A journalist who confesses an aversion for "looking at the big picture, taking the global view" insists on seeing homelessness as an individual crisis.

Anna Quindlen on Writing

203

(2)

BRENT STAPLES

Black Men and Public Space

205

(1)

In near-deserted streets at night, an African American writer finds to his surprise that women flee from him. Relating case histories, he tells what he has discovered about "public space."

Brent Staples on Writing

209

(3)

CHET RAYMO

A Measure of Restraint

212

(1)

Before their dangers were understood, radioactive chemicals enticed with their blue glow and then killed. A science writer contemplates whether genetic engineering, attractive as it is, could also be perilous.

Chet Raymo on Writing

218

(1)

SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS

Signs

219

(1)

The billboards outside the author's hometown speak for corporations, but in the city's alleys the graffiti speaks volumes about the hopes and fears of individuals.

In this fictional exchange, a daughter can barely insert two sentences into her mother's litany of instructions on how to become a lady, not a slut.

Jamaica Kincaid on Writing

371

(2)

ADDITIONAL WRITING TOPICS

373

(2)

10 CLASSIFICATION: Sorting into Kinds

375

(54)

Visual Image: What Everyone Should Know About the Movie Rating System, chart from the Motion Picture Association of America

THE METHOD

376

(1)

THE PROCESS

377

(3)

Focus on Paragraph Development

379

(1)

Checklist for Revising a Classification

380

(1)

CLASSIFICATION IN PARAGRAPHS

380

(1)

CLASSIFICATION IN PRACTICE: Crafting a resume

381

(3)

RUSSELL BAKER

The Plot Against People

384

(1)

The goal of inanimate objects, declares this renowned humorist, is nothing short of the destruction of the human race.

Russell Baker on Writing

387

(3)

DEBORAH TANNEN

But What Do You Mean?

390

(1)

Sometimes an apology is not an apology, observes an expert on communication. Men and women would get along better if they understood each other's codes of speech.

Deborah Tannen on Writing

398

(2)

SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON

The Crisis of National Identity

400

(1)

Why did US flags appear everywhere after September 11, 2001? The author, a political scientist, says that the terrorist attacks caused a single national identity to trump the many other allegiances of Americans.

PAIRED SELECTIONS: TELLING LIES

STEPHANIE ERICSSON

The Ways We Lie

407

(1)

Most of us couldn't get by without lying, the writer acknowledges, but even the little lies corrupt, until "moral garbage becomes as invisible to us as water is to a fish."

Stephanie Ericsson on Writing

416

(1)

WILLIAM LUTZ

The World of Doublespeak

417

(1)

"Pavement deficiencies" (potholes) and "a career alternative enhancement program" (a layoff of workers) are but two expressions that conceal unpleasant truths. An expert in such language explains the types of doublespeak and their effects.

William Lutz on Writing

425

(2)

ADDITIONAL WRITING TOPICS

427

(2)

11 CAUSE AND EFFECT: Asking Why

429

(48)

Visual Image: Garbage In..., cartoon by Mike Thompson

THE METHOD

430

(1)

THE PROCESS

431

(5)

Focus on Clarity and Conciseness

435

(1)

Checklist for Revising a Cause-and-Effect Essay

436

(1)

CAUSE AND EFFECT IN PARAGRAPHS

436

(2)

CAUSE AND EFFECT IN PRACTICE: Setting the record straight in a letter to the editor

438

(2)

PAIRED SELECTIONS: GLOBALIZATION

NAOMI KLEIN

A Web of Brands

440

(1)

Visiting an Indonesian sweatshop, this journalist discovers connections between herself and the young women working there-connections bearing the brand names London Fog, Esprit, and, of course, McDonald's.

Naomi Klein on Writing

447

(1)

CHITRA DIVAKARUNI

Live Free and Starve

448

(1)

Forcing developing countries to put an end to child labor might not be the cure-all it seems. The children themselves, asserts this fiction writer and activist, could suffer much worse fates than working.

Chitra Divakaruni on Writing

452

(2)

GORE VIDAL

Drugs

454

(1)

A critic and novelist presents an always radical idea for dealing with drug abuse: Legalize drugs. The effects will be less addiction and less crime.

Gore Vidal on Writing

458

(1)

MEGHAN DAUM

Safe-Sex Lies

459

(1)

According to a twenty-something writer, those who grew up in the age of AIDS have learned some unintended lessons, among them "chronic dishonesty and fear."

DON DELILLO

Videotape

466

(1)

The narrator of this short story wonders: What compels him to watch a videotape of a murder over and over and over again?

Don DeLillo on Writing

472

(2)

ADDITIONAL WRITING TOPICS

474

(3)

12 DEFINITION: Tracing a Bot.andary

477

(38)

Visual Image: Need Is a Very Subjective Word, advertisement for the HUMMER H

H2

THE METHOD

478

(1)

THE PROCESS

479

(5)

Focus on Paragraph and Essay Unity

483

(1)

Checklist for Revising a Definition

483

(1)

DEFINITION IN PARAGRAPHS

484

(1)

DEFINITION IN PRACTICE: Explaining the mission of an organization

485

(1)

PAIRED SELECTIONS: HURTFUL WORDS

GLORIA NAYLOR

The Meanings of a Word

486

(1)

An African American's childhood experiences with the word nigger taught her that the sense of a word owes everything to context.

Gloria Naylor on Writing

491

(1)

CHRISTINE LEONG

Being a Chink

492

(1)

Responding to Naylor's essay, a student considers another word with the power to sting or unite, depending on who is using it and why.

Christine Leong on Writing

497

(2)

THOMAS SOWELL

"Needs"

499

(1)

What do we really need? The answer is important to this economist because when we adopt a broad definition of need "our whole economy and society suffer."

DAGOBERTO GILB

Pride

503

(1)

With affecting sensitivity, a fiction writer and essayist sees pride in the smallest details of a Mexican American community.

Dagoberto Gilb on Writing

507

(1)

MARIE WINN

Cookies or Heroin?

508

(1)

Have you ever been unable to turn off your TV? If so, you may suffer from TV addiction.

Most evidence says that students cheat much more than they did fifty years ago. A student argues for a certain explanation.

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR.

Why Don't We Complain?

538

(1)

Most of us let ourselves be pushed around like patsies, argues a well-known conservative. He urges us to stand up and speak out against little oppressions, to make greater nuisances of ourselves.

William F. Buckley, Jr., on Writing

545

(1)

PAIRED SELECTIONS: VEGETARIANISM

LAURA FRASER

Why I Stopped Being a Vegetarian

546

(1)

The writer explains why she was a vegetarian for fifteen years and then argues for her decision to quit.

Laura Fraser on Writing

551

(1)

PETER SINGER

A Vegetarian Philosophy

552

(1)

Starting from a lawsuit against McDonald's, a philosopher argues for vegetarianism as "a moral protest against our use of animals as mere things."

Peter Singer on Writing

559

(1)

PAIRED SELECTIONS: SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

KATHA POLLITT

What's Wrong with Gay Marriage?

560

(1)

A liberal columnist systematically refutes the arguments she hears against same-sex marriage. Marriage, she says, is much less defined and standardized than many people want to believe.

Katha Pollitt on Writing

564

(2)

CHARLES COLSON

Gay "Marriage": Societal Suicide

566

(1)

The purpose of marriage is to nurture children, says this prison activist. Undermining traditional families by allowing same-sex marriage will lead to "more criminals behind bars and more chaos in our streets."

CASEBOOK:

SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY: Profiling

ADNAN R. KHAN: Close Encounters with US Immigration

570

(1)

Intimidated, hurt, and bemused, a Pakistani Canadian journalist questions the grueling security check he underwent at the US border.

LINDA CHAVEZ: Everything Isn't Racial Profiling

575

(1)

The writer didn't much like being questioned by airport security because she doesn't "look American," but she believes the airlines are justified in singling out people who fit the profile of a terrorist.

SECURITY VERSUS LIBERTY: The USA Patriot Act

ZARA GELSEY:The FBI Is Reading over Your Shoulder

579

(1)

In its efforts to nab potential terrorists, the author argues, the USA Patriot Act endangers the freedom of everyone who uses a library.

Zara Gelsey on Writing

584

(1)

VIET D. DINH: How the USA Patriot Act Defends Democracy

585

(1)

The primary author of the Patriot Act acknowledges concerns about government surveillance but argues that the fears are unfounded. The threat to Americans' liberty is not law enforcement agencies; it is terrorists.

Viet D. Dinh on Writing

591

(1)

ADDITIONAL WRITING TOPICS

592

(1)

PART THREE MIXING THE METHODS

593

(108)

SANDRA CISNEROS

Only Daughter

596

(5)

The sole daughter in a large Mexican American family, a poet and fiction writer tells how her efforts to be heard finally paid off with her father.

Sandra Cisneros on Writing

601

(2)

JOAN DIDION

Earthquakes

603

(4)

With a sharp eye and ear, a native Californian observes how she and others respond to a series of earthquakes. Could this be "the Big One"?

Joan Didion on Writing

607

(2)

BARBARA EHRENREICH

The Roots of War

609

(5)

Making war puts human beings in a class with ants and chimpanzees among the earth's species. Abolishing war, argues this critic, requires thinking differently about it.

Barbara Ehrenreich on Writing

614

(1)

STEPHEN JAY GOULD

A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse

615

(9)

Mickey Mouse changed over the decades, becoming softer and younger looking. A scientist with a flair for explanation proposes why and finds surprising parallels in human evolution.

With force and eloquence, an inspired leader champions the rights of African Americans and equality for all.

MAXINE HONG KINGSTON

No Name Woman

631

(12)

An adulterous woman is driven to suicide by her unforgiving family and village in China. A generation later, her American-born niece seeks to understand the story of someone whose name she has never dared to ask.

Maxine Hong Kingston on Writing

643

(2)

GEORGE ORWELI

Shooting an Elephant

645

(8)

As a young British police officer, this famous writer faced a killer elephant and the expectations of a gleeful Burmese crowd. He could not take pride in his response.

George Orwell on Writing

653

(2)

RICHARD RODRIGUEZ

Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood

655

(12)

Recalling both the pleasures and the pains of his boyhood, a Mexican American writer reflects on his two languages, Spanish and English, and his two cultures. His argument against bilingual education may provoke debate.

Richard Rodriguez on Writing

667

(2)

EDWARD SAD

Clashing Civilizations?

669

(5)

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hardened thinking about "Islam vs. the West." This well-known writer argues that such polarities are not only simplistic but also destructive.

JONATHAN SWIFT

A Modest Proposal

674

(10)

The rich devour the poor-so why not commercialize cannibalism? With scathing irony, the supreme English satirist states his views in a fit of bitter indignation.

Jonathan Swift on Writing

684

(2)

E.B. WHITE

Once More to the Lake

686

(7)

A father takes his young son on a pilgrimage to a favorite summertime scene from his own childhood, a lake in Maine. There he arrives at a startling realization.

E.B. White on Writing

693

(2)

VIRGINIA WOOLF

The Death of the Moth

695

(4)

For a perceptive writer, a simple day moth comes to symbolize "a tiny bead of pure life," a radiant force consumed in a heroic struggle against death.